Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Jeremiah Sirles needs Vikings to find their identity around JJ McCarthy (Part 2)

Episode Date: September 3, 2025

Matthew Coller talks with former Vikings offensive lineman Jeremiah Sirles about the Vikings' offensive identity and how Kevin O'Connell and JJ McCarthy will find that. And then they preview Vikings-Bears from the trenches perspective. Maggie Robinson then joins for a rundown of predictions from NFL executives. The Purple Insider podcast is brought to you by FanDuel.

Bitter Bruce says don't have nearly as many worries about McCarthy having rookie struggles. The kid's stats under pressure situations have been outstanding. Well, the thing about it is, like, I don't disagree with the concept of McCarthy being able to work through rookie struggles better than actual rookies would, but whatever stats you had at Michigan, it's awesome. They just don't mean anything. It was so long ago that we don't know anything about J.J. McCarthy other than what we've seen at

training camp, which was good. And under pressure situations, I think he was often at his best in the last two training camps. But now that we're going to have real games, then we will find out what it really is, as opposed to what we've had to kind of invent and imagine for a really long time about J.J. McCarthy. I mean, the college stats, they just, they're so long ago. He's just a kid at that point, and he still is a kid, but a much, much more developed kid than he was coming out of Michigan. Tom says, I don't think KOC has the patience to run 15 play drives. I think that it's not his philosophy.

So I don't know if it's, maybe it is impatience, but I think it's also his philosophy in general to just be aggressive. And he's talked about this, I think, well, it drove everybody insane when Ed Donatelle was the defensive coordinator, but what he wanted in Brian Flores as a DC was somebody who was going to have the defensive version of what he does on offense. He's always going to want to be aggressive,

but can you ring that in at times and trust the guys that you have in the backfield that if your first run goes two yards, well, maybe you can run it again. Maybe you can continue to pound away and have three straight runs and get a first down. I mean, you need 3.3 yards, per carry to get a first down on three straight runs.

You got two great running backs. You got interior offensive linemen that can run block. If you need, if you got a lead and you want to hold on to that lead in the second half, I think that's a good way to do it if you have the running game. And that's where I go back to, yes, it's his philosophy to hit explosive plays. Yes, it's his philosophy to go down field. I agree with those philosophies. Analytically, they work.

But who was it on this team in the backfield that, over the last few years was capable of, you know, smacking the opponent in the face. Like how many guys did they have in Alexander Madison and Ty Chandler and late Delvin Cook who basically never played again after that? I mean, he was extremely ineffective after that and then out of the league, which, you know, kind of tells you a lot about where Delvin Cook was at in his career at the end in 2022. And then last year, Aaron Jones is really good early in the season. And then he gets a little banged up. The offensive line has to make a substitution to take out a better run blocker,

to put in a better pass protector because they were just getting too many hits on Sam Darnold. And then that hurts their running game. Cam Robinson was at trocious at run blocking. That hurts their running game. So there's a lot that's going to be different here for J.J. McCarthy and Kevin O'Connell than there was last year. James says 175 yards. three touchdowns, no picks, it'll be a great game. I agree with that. I mean, I don't need him to throw for 350. I don't need him to score 50 points. I mean, if you keep the train on the tracks and win the game, that's all that really matters. And then that other stuff can come as you go

along. That's how I felt last year in New York with Sam Darnold. He kept the train on the tracks. He didn't make any big mistakes. He made a few plays when they needed him to. They won on defense and then on to the next week. You can't play like that if you get in the playoffs. You can't play like that through an entire season and win 12 games. But you certainly could start it out that way with a win in Chicago. And it's also Chicago. Bill says, call me crazy, but I see McCarthy with 350 yards, four touchdowns, and the Vikings will blow out Chicago.

Well, if they don't have Jalen Johnson, I don't know how good they are pressuring the quarterback in general. I mean, blowout, if you look at what Vegas thinks of this game, what Fandul thinks of this game, they're not seeing a blowout. at all. Now, that doesn't mean that they're right or they know, but they think it's going to be close. It's only a 1.5 favorite for the Vikings, which I think is kind of interesting because I would have that at more, but nobody really knows what to expect from the coach of Chicago, the quarterback of Chicago, the quarterback of the Vikings. Very, very intriguing game. But,

I mean, any sort of outcome that happens against Chicago is very plausible. Um, you know, it does, you know, skull to the bowl says, uh, nailers likely back to week one. You know, that is a factor, though, like his health. That's another thing we're going to be looking for tomorrow is, does he practice in full? Or, you know, when they say optimistic, that doesn't mean 100%. A seldom seen says, uh, Bonex in his first two games had two picks in each. Temper expectations expect JJ to be super hyped and make some mistakes. I do too, but I also think that when we're making these comparisons to,

rookie quarterbacks. He's just not. He's just not a rookie. It's not the first time he's ever stepping on a field with another team that, you know, you had the joint practices and he had the preseason games, which I know rookies have as well, but not the first time leading a team, not the first time learning the offense, not the first time seeing the speed of the game up close like he has in two different training camps. So I think it is a little bit different. I I generally understand what you're getting at there, which is, like, look, you know, you can't just put everything on his shoulders right away. But I didn't see a quarterback in training camp that I thought, oh, man, they're going to

have to act like this guy's Kelly Holcomb out there. They're going to have to act like this guy's Brooks Bollinger out there and just try to, you know, dink and dunk, check it down, keep the train on the tracks. I don't think that they have to do that in order to beat the Chicago Bears. and if he does make a mistake, we move on, and he's done a good job at that before. Let's see.

Zan, Zan, Zan, says many people picking the bears, I don't understand. Well, you know, it's always going to go that way. They are the home team. It is Soldier Field. The bears always get more attention.

That always happens when it comes to Chicago until they get the four or five weeks into the season and then they realize that they're not the Chicago Bears that everyone invented in their, mind. I mean, I remain skeptical on that team. I think that they're improved. Jeremiah was much higher on the offensive line than me. I'm going to kind of stay with that I don't think Jonah Jackson's ever been that great. I think Drew Dalman was a bit of a reach for how much they paid him and is not the greatest pass protector. I think they are vulnerable at left tackle. That's, you know, that's three

positions in past protection that I have questions about with that team. So I think that they can get after Caleb Williams there. But, you know, Chicago has improved. It's just show me where outside of, you know, the receiver position, they're very deep, that they have the superstar talent. If the quarterback is unbelievable, then yes, they'll be a lot better.

But roster-wise, I think that they're much more of a B-minus type overall roster where the Vikings are an A and Detroit is still an A. And Green Bay has moved up to a B-plus when it comes to overall roster. Philly is an A. there's other teams that are just better than Chicago. So Dusty says love the optimism, but way too much purple Kool-Aid thinking 2313. 23-13 is a total fair score.

And that was really kind of the question there, which is, would you rather see him have a grind fest or a shootout because the over-under is right in the middle with, what did I say it was, 44 and a half for the over-under. So that's kind of neither. It's a little more grindy, I guess, but it's kind of neither. I think 2313 is a little more toward the grind fest,

and that would be a pretty good outcome for them. That would mean McCarthy plays pretty well. It means the defense plays really well, and there you go. Then you end up coming out of there, want to know, which is, of course, is the most important thing, but looks do kind of matter a little bit here because we're trying to get any sort of hints of what this is going to look like over the entire season.

And one week definitely doesn't tell you all those answers, But, you know, historically, week one has told us at least something about the Vikings and who they are. If you think about the first week of Kevin O'Connell in 2022, and we saw some of the prowess of the play calling and getting Justin Jefferson open. You go, okay, this man is doing some things that we hadn't seen before. And then in 2023, the way they lost that Tampa Bay game, that showed some serious vulnerability of the defense under Brian Flores that year. with a lack of talent. I think it also showed some of the offenses shortcomings in the run game and so forth. Like we can get, we can get a sense.

I don't think we get all the answers or anywhere close, but at least you get a sense for what the team is going to look like and what the approach is going to be. So, uh, B, uh, J. Deasy says Ben Johnson seems like a tyrant based on the weird things that leaked out of Bears camp, not sure that Caleb will respond favorably to that kind of coaching. I have the same skepticism, J.D.Z, because any time we've heard stuff like that, it's Matt Patricia, did a great job for Ohio State's defense, but did not do a great job as the Detroit Lions head coach. It's Matt Patricia. It's even Brian Flores as a head coach in Miami.

Flores has become an incredible defensive coordinator, but it was the same sort of stuff. And on and on and on, down the line of the Belichick disciples. And who was the, uh, Why am I blanking on, oh, Joe, Judge, that was the other guy who was the special teams coach and got hired by the Giants. And it was, it was just odd stuff that was going on that you don't see happening anywhere else. And when you are just losing your mind every time there's a mistake, I don't know if that's the way to get through to a guy like Caleb Williams. And maybe the idea is we're going to toughen him up. Maybe he watched the Dallas Netflix and saw Jimmy Johnson toughening those guys up. and he doesn't care if a guy has asthma.

You get out there and run. I don't care if you die on this field. That just doesn't sound like that's 2025 to me. That sounds like the 90s NFL sounds a little too much like Zimmer. And I hope you guys caught when Anthony Barr was talking yesterday. And remember, Barr is a very intelligent dude. And he slid in the smallest little nugget where he said when I asked him about 23 and what he learned about O'Connell, he said something like, you know,

he's the perfect coach for today's game. And I think that told you everything about maybe Mike Zimmer was the perfect coach for 1994. And as much as I love 1994 NFL, it's not that anymore. So does Caleb Williams respond to his coach going nuts? You know, I even thought the guy from Tennessee Callahan, remember in the Vikings game last year, the guy lost his mind, he were totally crazy on the sideline. You're like, does this work? Does this work to play? Do the players like to see their head coach just having a connipion all the time?

Does that teach them the best way? I mean, these are adults. So I don't know if it does. I have my same skepticism about that. But there might be another part that Caleb Williams was soft. And he needed to learn that this is the NFL, the NFL. The NFL, it's not going to let you get far if you're going to. to be soft and oversensitive and flop around on the sideline like a fish and give up when

your team is losing and stuff like that. I mean, I don't know. Maybe that is it or maybe it really had to be drilled into him. The timing and all that stuff is everything in an offense. I think that trying to force the square peg into the round hole sounds a little bit suspicious to me. If you're asking him to play like Jared Goff, he is not going to be Jared Goff. So how do you let him be the playmaker that he is well also leaning into you know getting him on time getting him to see the field better than he does uh Andrew says uh can we really say chaos he hates running the ball I think he just knew how weak the interior offensive line was and didn't want to kill drives with tackles for loss and I and Andrew I've always left the door open for that I think that

the smoking guns uh when it comes to plays that we could point to and say okay no matter how bad your run game was, you needed to be running the ball there, was the Green Bay game. You know, they're up by, what, 21 points or something, 17 points, and they're still trying to have Sam Darnold throw 20-yard touchdowns. The Jets game over in London, these are the ones that come to mind right off the bat. The Jets game in London where, you know, you're a third in 18 or something, and you should just run a draw, and instead they're throwing a 25-yard pass and it gets picked off. or even in Jacksonville, where I know that Aaron Jones was banged up.

And I know that there's, he's still on the team. But, you know, Ty Chandler has taken his abuse from Kevin O'Connell in the media, in the media is the only player I could say that O'Connell has kind of nailed, you know, at the podium a few times. And he didn't trust him. But still, like, that was a game where your quarterback was not on point and you needed to keep running. And they just kept throwing when they got to the red zone until they,

ran and end around and it got a 15-yard loss or something. So I think hates running the ball is not quite the right characterization. Is he going to be comfortable with sticking with it when it's working? That was my criticism last year, especially early in the year, is it would be working and you would be getting yards and you're winding clock and you're having longer drives and then, oh, you're throwing on second and five. and it's an incompletion now it's third and five now you have to pass and just drives would die like that and what is the other team love when you are losing what do you need you need some clock stoppages

you need the other team to throw an incomplete pass like the comeback game against the Colts one of the reasons that happened was that they threw some incompletion they threw it some bad inopportune times and they threw incompletions and it helped the Vikings by stopping the clock they've left some teams in game because of that. But you're right, you are right to say, this will be the real test of whether you can put together a run scheme. And they did, as I mentioned with Searles, they did bring in, you know, someone from the outside with a different background in running the football. That may help. I think schematically, they did need some changes after last year. It's a, it's a big story for me. Because if you, if you can run the ball as this team, if you can be the 10th best

running team. I don't know how it fails other than J.J. McCarthy, just not knowing how to throw football at all because you have so many weapons. I shot you 99. This is, does the lack of cornerback depth mean Flores plans on three safety looks as this season's identity? Well, I mean, they did that last year a ton with the three safeties. Folks, I know a lot of you out there either own your own business or you are in a management position where you have to hire people and it can be such a headache. You have to sort through all sorts of resumes of people who aren't qualified and you end up overlooking some of the best candidates. It's tough. But what is not tough is using ZipRecruiter for your hiring need. ZipRecruiter finds amazing candidates for you

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ZipRecruiter, the smartest way to hire. And, you know, Shack Griffin, how many, I'll look this up. I'm curious now. How often, like, when Shack Griffin was in, let's find this out. When Shack Griffin wasn't filling in for Stefan Gilmore, how many snaps did he play a game? Because I think that that will tell us roughly, how much we're going to see Jeff Okuda. Now, really bounced around, really bounced around for Shaq Griffin.

Some games he played in the 40s and snaps early in the season. Well, they were playing from way ahead in those games, though. So if you're playing against Houston or Green Bay and you're up by 20 points, you're going to have extra corners in. When they played closer games like Detroit, L.A., Indianapolis, Jacksonville, it was more of somewhere between, he only played 10 snaps against Jacksonville, 10 and 30, somewhere between 10 and 30. So if they play Jeff Okuda between 10 and 30 snaps, I think you're in pretty good shape there and then three safeties the rest of the way.

I guess my big question for the start of the season is if Harrison Smith can't go, then do you just have to play Jeff Okuda 45 snaps? That's where you might get a little bit on the nervous side. Rob says, do we really think JJ will be more nervous in front of 60,000 in Chicago than he was 107 in Michigan at Sabin Field? You know, Rob, I've never found that to correlate. College is just different. It's just different. In college, Michigan was wildly better. And I know you're referring to the Alabama game that was big and he was very good in that game.

But when they play Washington, they're wildly better than Washington. It's just different. The pressure of the NFL, the players in the NFL, the media covering the NFL is just so much different. Everything is than college. And is he going to feel nervous? You bet he is. Absolutely. He's going to feel nervous.

nervous. That doesn't mean he's going to fall apart in front of all of us. I think you're right to say this guy's been on big stages from the time that he was in high school and there is some element of being used to that. But it is different. It is very different in the NFL. There's been many guys who came from great college program. I mean, hey, look, Lewis Seen was unbelievable in college and then got on the NFL field and just didn't know what to do. I have not seen McCarthy seem intimidated by anything, including the New England Patriots and the joint practices. But it is, it is different. I mean, this is a long journey for him to get here.

I'm sure there will be plenty of nerves. And that's why, you know, first drive, I am really interested first drive. Is KOC going to try to deal with those by taking a shot, play action, first play of the game and try to get a 50 yard completion? Or do we see a little bit of this, a little bit more slow play out? I think you'd love to see from the Vikings. and their opening drive, 14 plays, you know, completion to Hawkinson, completion to Thielen, hand off to Mason, hand a, you know, swing past to Jones, like just a slow churn of like,

this is how we're going to win today and then get McCarthy into the mix that way. But you just don't really know until they get out there. And, and, but that first 15 plays is going to be really something to watch for KOC because at times he's been very, very aggressive out of the gate. And there were other times where he dinked and dunked down the field and then maybe didn't stick with that throughout the game, but effectively did that. Did a lot with Kirk with opening drives. Very successful with those first 15 plays since he's been here. Marauder says I think KOC just couldn't run. Look behind the line tackles in this year. He had never had an offensive line. he um so yeah no i mean i agree that the offensive line was a huge part of it the it was a huge part

of why they could not uh run effectively and and that's something that should change this quite a bit i think but we'll see if he does actually want to stay with it or just use it as a means to get to passing which is kind of how he did it before but the play action game has been really good seldom seen they can't let caleb williams get comfortable flores is going to release the hounds. So that's another thing. We've talked so much about McCarthy already. The game is next Monday, but come on, like, let's break this thing down. As far as, you know, facing Caleb Williams, that's where I think if they have four to be able to rush and get after Caleb Williams, Hargrave, Allen, the edge rushers, that's going to be the hardest thing for him

to deal with. I think that's the hardest thing for Ben Johnson to deal with, is if they can get after with four. Ben Johnson can pick apart some blitzes and pick apart some, you know, strange coverages and different looks. But there's really, as you saw in the Super Bowl, there's really no answer when you can get after a team with four. There's no real schedule or not schedule, no real, I was reading the word schedule. There's really no scheme that just defeats a four-man rush. If you are winning with your front four, there isn't anything you can really do because everything becomes so much easier for the coverage. You could drop everybody back. You can sit in those zones. That's really how the Vic Fangio defense is so good or so horrible

if you don't have that. If you can't get there with four, it can be atrocious because it's so difficult for the cornerbacks if they're just sitting and sitting and sitting and sitting in those zones. But if they don't have to wait very long back there and the quarterback has to pick apart who's where, that's where it gets really tricky. So I think, you know, those acquisitions of Hargrave and Allen. I mean, those are enormous in a game like this. Let's see. Vegas Patriots,

as Vikings get 180 rushing yards, that's, you know, that's certainly possible. Rob points out the Giants were a one-point underdog last year and lost by 25. Well, look, if Vegas knew everything, you know, then how fun would this be? Wouldn't be at all. That's what makes it interesting.

But I just, you know, that I'm just pointing out. And I guess, you know, it is true, though, that hype teams are always bad bets, right? And I'm not a gambling expert by any means. But hype teams are bad bets. If you have a team like Chicago that's just getting pumped up by everybody all offseason, that's going to be bad money to put down in general, I think. Those of you who are better at gambling can confirm that.

But I think that goes for almost anything. Like, if you were betting on UNC, like you're not getting a good price there because everybody's betting on UNC. Everyone was thinking that Belichick was going to run TCU off the field. That's what all the analysts were saying. So maybe because all the analysts constantly overrate the Chicago Bears, that could mean that, you know, the money is going a little bit more toward them when it doesn't deserve to be.

Or it also could be just a one and a half point favorite because nobody knows. And the same thing with last year with Sam Darnold. Chris says Soldier Field is slow, so it's going to negate our speed it shouldn't be right now shouldn't be right now i don't i mean look fast guys are going to be fast if it was a slop fest if it's rain well i mean maybe if that's the case if it was raining it's gnarly out there on the field then yeah that could hurt a little bit but i i think at the beginning of the season before that thing has been torn to shreds it should be okay it should be all right uh let's see seldom scenes as jj's in his hometown first NFL game

I'm realizing your dream Monday night football. Most quarterbacks would be hyperventilating in the tunnel. Well, you know, and that's, I'm friends with a sports psychologist. Get to meet a lot of people in the industry. And he was talking to me about nerves and how he's interviewed players plenty of times where about big plays. And he has asked them about like, were you nervous? Remember when there was an example that he used.

where T.J. O'Shee, remember when it was the Olympics, and T.J. O'Shee had to score in the shootout, like, every time. And there was an interview where they said, were you nervous? And he said, of course I was. I couldn't even feel my legs, you know, just every time I was going back there. And there's also a story about Joe Montana trying to call a timeout in the Super Bowl when he leads the game winning drive against Cincinnati because he couldn't breathe. He was so nervous and anxious that he couldn't breathe. And he was trying to call a timeout. I think Bill Walsh told this story. and Walsh was like, we don't call timeout right now. Like, keep going, keep going. And he didn't realize it. And yet the best, the best athletes who are clutch, they usually find a way to not let that overwhelm them or work their way through it or focus on what they have been taught and what they know.

But there's no stopping the nerves there. I mean, you, you heard Anthony Barr's story about throwing up before every game. That's how nervous these guys get before NFL games. I mean, it's crazy. Like, look, I get. nervous before covering games. I can't imagine how McCarthy's got I'm going to be sitting this happens every single game day for me. I'm very nervous every game because I know like how much there is going to be to do and can't wait to find out what's going to happen and you know, want to make sure

that I get everything right and every single, you know, do the best post game I can and all that stuff. That's a pretty small thing in comparison to actually playing on Monday night football. So it's how well they manage those nerves. And then when you get into. the flow of the game, that's where you start to, you know, calm down. And as they say, just play football, as I think Carson Wentz had mentioned to him. But yeah, I mean, you're, you're going to be super nervous to start that game. So Ken, if you're O'Connell, can you just get him going a little bit? Now, is that throwing a 50-yard bomb on the first play? I don't know about that. Maybe that's a swing pass to Aaron Jones that gets you 10 yards. And then, okay,

like we're rolling. I completed the first pass and off we go. How they deal with that, I think, is going to be very interesting in that first drive. Let's see. A lot of good stuff from you guys tonight. I mean, I can tell, you know what's great is I can tell that you guys are as amped up about this as me. Mr. Mayor says somehow convinced myself before every game that this is the one where we're going to end up with 600 yards passing 18 catch a you know four touchdowns the defense gets 20 sacks I'm so excited for the season yeah I can I could tell with that you know there's kind of thinking

about all the different scenario I don't think that's a scenario I don't think 20 sacks and 600 yards is a scenario but I do think that there's a wide range for this game the scenario where Caleb Williams just rips them apart is a little bit hard to see but they do have a lot of weapons they do have, as Jeremiah talked about, an improved offensive line. And it's really going to be for Williams on their side, on the bear's side, and we will talk to, you know, Courtney Crone at some point this week. But on the bear's side, this whole, this game is going to be a whole referendum on Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams.

You talk about pressure. I mean, that team has, talking about nerves, like that team has so much pressure because what's resting for Caleb Williams, and you can bet that after the game, when you turn on the TV the next day, if the Vikings win 2313, and you're like, wonder what they have to say about my squad.

I promise you they will be talking about Caleb Williams. No matter what happens, they're going to be talking about Caleb Williams. If he has a bad game, it's going to be that it didn't work with Ben Johnson. They should be hitting the panic button. Caleb Williams is a bust. And if he has a good game,

then it's, oh, this is the year for Caleb Williams. Like, there's only, that's why we do such long conversations, for every detail and talk about the punt returner and everything because these two outcome conversations are frustrating. But you can really bet, though, that that's going to be the main discussion. So the pressure is, I think, on Chicago more. They're the team that's at home. They're the team that has the quarterback that is under the white hot light so much over

the last year. And getting a coach fired already in your first year, that puts you in the spotlight to talked about like that with those extremes after one game. So both quarterbacks are going to be having a lot of the same feelings, uh, I think. Okay, let's see. So, uh, let me, uh, let me remind you of a, uh, well, the, the fan dual question of the day, by the way, if you're just joining, was the over under for Vikings bears is 44 and a half, would you rather have the Vikings play a grind fest or a shootout? So grind fest hits the under and they win or shoot out over and they win, which gives them a better chance to win. Also want to remind you about a really good friend of mine and her great

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podcast beyond the bar. So we've got in a few minutes here, Maggie Robinson with the Robinson Roundup, where we look at a few things around the league. There was an interesting article she discovered from the athletic, where executives make their predictions. And so they left out something when it came to the Vikings in their predictions that we'll talk about. Jay Deasy says, if Searle thinks the Bears O line is top five, but only thinks they

win six games. It's safe to say he isn't buying Caleb. It's hard right now to buy Caleb, isn't it? And as much as I think we never know nothing. I mean, look at first years of quarterbacks. I did this exercise a while back. When Gino Smith kind of hit big in Seattle for that one year, I looked back at all the quarterbacks in the draft over the last, I don't 20 years. What were they like in their first year starting, second year and third year? And it was really the second and third years that were so much more telling. There were rookies who had terrible rookie years, Eli Manning, Jared Goff, who became good quarterbacks.

But there were very, very rarely guys who were bad in their second year and then still became good quarterbacks, guys who were bad in their third year and still became good quarterbacks. So this will be very telling. But also, just from the standpoint of what succeeds as an NFL quarterback, what skill set, that's what, what things can take you down, what doesn't succeed. The biggest thing that fails in the NFL is when a guy can't play in rhythm. And this is why you hear KOC talk about all the time, rhythm and timing, rhythm and timing.

You're like, oh, all right, Kev, I get it. You want, you know, Nick Mullins play with rhythm and timing. I get it. But he's absolutely right. And what Caleb Williams doesn't play with is rhythm and timing. He lowers his eyes with the past rush. He senses the rush when it's not there. Watch those college quarterbacks.

Watch how often when I was watching Kate Klubnick the other day. I think that's his name, Clemson guy. The last play of the game where he's still got a chance to go win the game, tie the game, whatever it was. They send a blitz up the middle. No one had gotten loose yet. And he bailed out of the pocket and they chased him down. That's the stuff that always when I see I go, I don't know.

It's the thing I like about J.J. McCartner, the absolute most is that he drops back and he's a little bit like young golf like this finds where he's supposed to throw with the football and gets rid of it there's not a lot of like ducking in the pocket and this is sam howling practice all the time just kind of ducking in the pocket eyes go down in the pressure not knowing where to go with the ball that's caleb williams can you fix that bears fans thought you could with justin fields found out you can't um there are still people who love Justin Fields and are buying him I you're not going to convince me that a guy who drops his eyes in the pocket who bails out of clean pockets early that doesn't see the field

very well that doesn't play in rhythm you're just not going to convince me that those guys are good Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen play in rhythm all the time and Josh Allen is just a complete total freak show six foot five six six 250 pounds like he can sit in there and just knock off defensive ends coming after him but he never takes sacks that's you look at josh allen he holds on to the ball sometimes a little bit but he never takes sacks and guys who take sacks always that that to me is usually i'm out if somebody takes 50 60 sacks so i think there's plenty of reason for skepticism with uh kaleb williams uh mr marauder or marauder says uh Vegas does not pick winners they pick numbers that split the

money uh yeah no you're you're absolutely right about that and that's where i think that there's probably a lot of money based on the popularity of Chicago. Marshall says JJ will throw for 250, run for two touchdowns, and the Vikes win by 10. That's where I, another area that you could take a small, just a tiny little sample size of the preseason game and we can learn something about J.J. McCarthy. I think his running game is going to be big for him this year, very big. And you saw that when they got through the Texans on a blitz. that he was able to take advantage of that and get first downs.

You'd like to see him use that a lot. You would definitely like to see him use that a lot. I shot you 99 says maybe you need to ask McCarthy about some meditating sessions. I actually wrote a story about it last year. You could go find it, Purple Insider, with my friend Justin Anderson, the sports psychologist. Yep. So I did a big story about I asked McCarthy about his meditation and then I asked the sports psychologist about it.

And he works with a lot of pro teams. and got great answers about it. And, you know, what I've, and McCarthy's described it very well, that it's not climbing the Himalayan mountains or something weird. It's just some exercises to calm down, like, your natural brain functions. And it was really interesting to find out about that, though. There's a lot of, like, brain makeup and how your brain responds to stuff that meditation can work with.

So it's not, definitely not, like, something weird or strange. But I learned a lot about it if you want to go find that. that story. Let's see. The dude wants a grind fest. Don't blame you for that. I think the Vikings are a little better suited for a grind fest. Depends on DeAndre Swift, Roshan Johnson, bitter Bruce. This game is, this game more than many comes down to who wins the trenches. Yeah, I mean, certainly a lot of games do, but in this one where I think the Vikings have an advantage, if they're going to win, they are going to win in the trenches. Yeah. High times, KG, anybody else nervous about the season? I want McCarthy to be good,

but what if he's not? Yeah, I mean, well, I mean, as I said, I always get, you know, nervous for this thing to get going and for games to start and so forth. But, you know, I think that where Vikings fans should stand on that, I know you're not referring to the nervousness before a football game. You're talking about nervous about the worst case, it's out there. But if I were pie charting, why don't, why don't I just offer myself a pie chart for outcomes for this season? The one that I would be most confident in giving a low percentage is that none of this works. And it's just awful and he can't play and they're fumbling all over the place on offense and they finish 25th in offense and they just stink and they win six

games like outside of an injury to McCarthy based on what I've seen over the last two camps that just doesn't seem possible they have too much talent even if he was really struggling they can run the ball still and they have a really good defense still and there I mean they were in 2023 when they were a much worse roster they were still a interception uh no a touchdown no was it an interception was it a fumble oh a fumble in Denver they were a fumble by Alexander away from closing out the Denver Broncos. They were a freaking crazy tush push away from closing out Cincinnati Bengals. They were a wide open Jefferson away.

They almost won 10 games with Nick Mullins and Josh Dobbs playing in 2023. It's hard to see a scenario where you can't be in the conversation for going in the playoffs. But the rest of the outcomes are all equal to me. If they ended up winning nine games and being a wild card team or going into the last week, not knowing if they were going to make it, that wouldn't shock me. And that would mean that McCarthy had some struggles along the way. The most outcome that I think will happen is that they win 10 or 11 games and they're

right in that mix and they go into the playoffs and you don't know what's going to happen. And then there's also a reasonable chance that the teams was great. I mean, Brock Purdy in his first season as a starter was great. CJ Stroud with the Texans was great. You know, they want a playoff game in his, didn't they? Did they win a playoff game? Yeah, they beat the Browns, right? in C.J. Stroud's first game. I mean, you've seen young quarterbacks have a lot of success

right away in the NFL. It's not like, oh, he's a young quarterback. It can't happen. But as far as outcomes go, the one where it goes really bad is the one that I think is the least plausible. And even if he does get injured from time to time, then you do have Carson Wentz who can go in and win a game for you. So they have kind of covered a lot of their bases there. Dusty says those old pros always talk about quarterback and receiver being able to run plays in the dark because they had the timing. And while that's one thing that I'm wondering about how that goes, how is the timing going to go for J.J. McCarthy and Justin Jefferson and his wide receivers, because you still need, you know, time for those

guys to get together. Alex is Manning going to pick the schedule this week? He is. Yes, he is on Thursday. I actually got something special for you Thursday working on this of manny's going to pick the schedule and myself and Brian Murphy are both going to analyze it. So that'll be really fun. And every single week, I think what we're going to do this year is, because I like the consistency of what time we go live, what we're going to do is have Manny Hill and Brian Murphy the evening after games. We'll see what happens next week.

It's Monday night football might just go, you know, on Thursday. But Monday and Thursday are when Manny Hill's going to be on. And I think on Thursdays we're going to have him pick the schedule as like Thursday night football's going on kind of watch along slash pick the schedule it's going to be fun yeah i can't wait to have manny back on the show uh one of one of my best friends one of my favorite people so can't wait to have him back i don't make him work through june though i just can't do that to him so but that's what that's yeah that's an exciting bit to have back and last year was really fun because you know when manny picked like 11 or 12 wins we're like come on manny relax

and then as they went along just they kept winning and after they lost the two games he may have dropped it by five wins the next week it's just it's very it's very fun you guys could play along at home it's good i'm looking forward to it uh son of beavers how many sacks do we get in this game i'm going to throw off four but i mean i don't i have no idea before for i would go over under is two two and a half maybe would you go over under for sacks hire me fan duel uh samsa sean Peyton said how the first time he saw Drew Breeze, he was amazed at how quickly he processed things and could keep a track of multiple things at once. That's what I'm hoping McCarthy has. Yeah, the brain of Drew Breeze is unbelievable. And somebody told me once that Breeze, because he was

so short, couldn't really see that well, but he could identify vacancies of the defense. So what he would look for is not necessarily his receivers and watch them run across the field. And I would be really interested. I wish we had some, maybe I could watch some all 22 and see if you could get the sense for where his helmet's going, but where he would mostly focus on where linebackers and safeties had moved. So if it's cover one, if it's like a robber thing and, you know, the safety moves down, then there's vacated space in certain areas. And that's where he would throw to because he would know the timing of his receivers and know that when he had to make his decisions and where they would be. These guys who are the best at it, gosh, you, again, you watch college. You see

two or three quarterbacks get drafted in the first round. It's so hard to play this position. The guys who can do it like Drew Brees, the highest level, they have stuff going on in their brains that I think none of us could really fully understand. And he had that whatever it was, this freakish ability to see it without needing to see it. And I don't know if McCarthy has that, but I think what he has is a timing about things. where he understands, if it doesn't come out there, it needs to come out.

And I don't see him hanging out of the ball. Like, Breeze is all-time freakish when it comes to that stuff. But I think that McCarthy sees the field pretty well, where even in those preseason games, he was not hanging out of the ball. He drops back. He has a good idea of what the defense is doing and the ball comes out. That's the best trait you can have other than absolutely insane freakishness like, you know, Josh Allen or whatever.

Um, yeah, anytime that, uh, Sean Payton comes up, you know, anytime Sean Payton comes up, uh, Mr. Mayor, I'll have to see about Carmen Vitale. I'd love to get together with her again at some point, uh, we'll have to see. Um, she's a good friend of the show, but definitely, oh, uh, Kael and Kailer actually is coming on tomorrow. That's the plan. Kaelin Kailer from ESPN. She also resides in Chicago. So we're going to hear from her, Courtney Cronin, um,

andrew kramer later on in the week it's going to be a good week my friends mike show up on the fantasy side it's going to be a good week so uh okay well this has been a really fun conversation and i also had a fun discussion with maggie robinson for the robinson run down your special contributor former intern she got a new title now with purple insider so every week what we're going to do on tuesday night we'll have jeremiah surrell's tuesday morning left guard that'll be here every Tuesday night and then to end the show, Maggie Robinson is going to have her look around the NFL, always a fun and lighthearted conversation. So here's myself and Maggie. All right, we welcome in Maggie Robinson's special contributor to Purple Insider. And it is time

once again for the Robinson rundown, which we had planned for last week, but then we just got hit with breaking news over and over again, couldn't pull it off. So Maggie Robinson is back. Now that the NFL is settling in to its normal schedule, we will be doing this each week. So, Maggie, welcome back. And I am very curious to hear what is on your mind for the Robinson rundown where you take a look around the NFL. So what's going on? How are you? I'm good.

Happy week one. I feel like we've been waiting all here for this and we finally made it. And I love this week because it's the most delusionally optimistic time of the year because everyone's healthy. everyone has a great team hypothetically if they look at the right people like every reporter you've ever read is having the time of their life right now um but i can't wait to get into it and then see what shakes out in these first five to six weeks that is the critical time period weeks one through three one through three don't really matter that much you're still kind of trying the shoes on weeks three through six that's when you really figure it out so with that being said i'm going to take you through

some predictions for the beginning of the NFL season. Okay. I am interested in predictions. By the way, I did in June my 50 predictions that I do every year and I was looking over them and I was like, I don't think I'm going to do good this year. So I am curious to find out what you have and what I think you've got an article of executives and what they're predicting around the NFL and if any of them match up with some of mine. Yeah. So this kind of episode is shaped around an article from Jeff Howe and his colleagues at the athletic where they did a poll where they talked to NFL coaches and executives on the basis of anonymity and tried to get a feel for what their predictions are heading into

week one. So they asked a lot of different questions. And I'm going to read through some of these answers and we're going to talk about them in this episode. So let's just kick it off. This one, you can't even avoid. Who's going to fill the Micah Parsons-shaped void that is left in Dallas? It's tough. Charles Haley, I don't know. Charles Haley played in the 80s and 90s. If you were wondering, honestly, when I look at their roster and I look at their defense and think about where they were just a couple of years ago, now Trayvon Diggs is coming back for them. They just signed Duran Blant to an enormous contract.

So their secondary should be at least reasonable at the cornerback position. If they can get turnovers, like those guys both are kind of interception hounds where they may not cover the best. a play to play basis, but they're going to get picks and they're going to change the game. But I mean, also Digizua is a very good defensive tackle when it comes to creating pressure. He was one of the better in the league last year on the inside. But off of the edge and even when it comes to, you know, stopping the run, Kenny Clark in his previous years was as good as it got. And so if a team acquired Kenny Clark, I'd be like, oh, well, if he's got something left, then that's great. Last year, though, it was not the same Kenny Clark that destroyed the

Minnesota Vikings in the past. So it's not that they don't have a good interior or at least players with talent there, but off the edges, I'm not sure how they're going to pressure the quarterback. If Clark doesn't throw back to 2003, not sure how they're going to do it from the inside. Are they going to blitz all the time? Now that Mike Zimmer is out as their defensive coordinator, I don't know what they're going to do strategically. But this just seems like, Maggie, before you got here, the Vikings when they fired their

previous head coach, they were kind of like. sliding down a slippery wall like just with their fingernails like no we're not we're not we don't have to rebuild no and that's kind of how the Dallas cowboys feel and you know maybe trading micah parsons is almost admitting in some ways that they had to even though that's not a good idea to trade away micha parsons but at least they got draft fix out of it i jerry jones had to do something whether this was the right choice i would vote no but it does feel like an admission you know what hands in the air it's not going to be our year and so be it let's it almost feels like a let's get through it kind of season and we haven't even started my look here is dante fowler

and dante fowler to put this in terms that i as a young woman understand feels like trying to replace parsons with fowler is like settling for that guy who seems like maybe he could be the one like he's not bad he's not phenomenal but he's not bad but the standard was set so high by your ex that you just can't nothing's going to live up to it you know like If Micah Parsons sets the bar so high, no one else is going to come close to him. When you say, you know, I don't know the feeling there, although I have only ever had one lady in my life married the first girlfriend. So that's probably what Dallas should have done, is just stuck with through thick and thin

Micah Parsons. But, you know, Dante Fowler is a guy who's had some moments throughout his career, but not so much consistency in terms of his pass rush production. And that's what I mean where it's like, who is going to consistently bring production other than O'Di-Zua, who, and this is where it doesn't match up. When you talk about timeline-wise, they did not have to pay O'Di-Zua, but they brought him back on a pretty sizable contract. And now they signed Bland to a big contract.

So it's not like they have just gone out of their way to avoid spending any money, let go everybody and then try to go to the bottom and rebuild and oh by the way we should mention they got george pickens uh that's kind of a push the chips to the middle of the table move because pickens is kind of crazy at times uh and frustrating i think for the stealers at times they paid cd lamb huge money in his prime they have an incredibly high paid quarterback it really does it really does sound so much like where the vikings were when they fired mike zimmer and hired kevin o'connell because there was enough talent there to say, well, this team should at least be 500, but there was nowhere near, and with the expensive quarterback, there was nowhere near enough

talent to say they can actually compete. And the Vikings did a lot of this, like, oh, Dante Fowler, like, maybe they'll bring in this guy. And if he's amazing, then, you know, they brought back Sheldon Richardson at one point. There was a few different players that came in. It was like Bashad Breeland is the one that sticks out to me, who was just a guy at corner. And it was like, Like, maybe now if he's amazing, then that will be, but the chances of that actually happening were pretty low. And so now with them starting out the season as the first football we see, it's kind of like air out of the balloon with Micah Parsons not there. And it feels like Philadelphia should have a huge advantage in this game. Yeah, I mean, I'm not, I'm not being biased, but go birds here in this situation in week one.

I just don't think Dallas has the firepower to make this happen. I don't think so either. What was, what was your reaction, though, of Parsons getting traded to Green Bay? Because for me, I was really shocked that he went within the conference. I thought at very least, if you were going to trade one of the best players in the NFL, do it to Jacksonville or something, like get him away from the NFC, not a team that you have to play later on this year. And so, and by the way, it does work to the Vikings advantage that they don't have to face Parsons,

at least for that game in Dallas. they'll have to face them twice against Green Bay. That's not great for the Vikings. But when they go against Dallas, not much to be feared. But I was really surprised why when the Vikings traded Stefan Diggs, they were like, Buffalo, they get him away from the NFC. We know this guy's really good at football. Send him somewhere else.

Yeah, this one felt a little shocking. It felt a little messy and forced on all ends, truthfully. Like everyone's hands were a little bit tied. Something had to happen. And this is what, this is what occurred. you know like is it ideal in a lot of realms no it didn't even sound like had micha parsons had his way he would have preferred to stay in Dallas but there was just no realm of possibility in which that was going to happen but yeah i was shocked when this news came out i was all my friends were texting me they're like oh my god are you seeing this this is insane so i think it kind of caught everybody by surprise but we'll see also one thing about michael parsons i found out today the man might play in week one but he might need an epidural in his back for his back injury. Not ideal.

Not ideal. It is, especially because they're playing Detroit. And this is one of the most interesting games for Vikings fans to watch while they're waiting around until Monday night football is that that's a game that could determine who wins the NFC North at the end of the day. And if he doesn't play long term, it's still good for the Packers.

But that would be a big, big L for them to not have their new toy and be without Kenny Clark for that first week against a team that when they could protect. Jared Gough, they are extremely, extremely good. But let me, let me ask you a question here. Did anything else happen in the rest of the week? Because I feel like the only stories that have been covered in football are Bill Belichick being an awful college coach and Micah Parsons.

And I don't think I've seen any other headline about any other subject. So I was hoping you might have other stuff. I do. I want to say the one thing I found, Arch Manning. Oh, the most flop of flops in his debut, you know, not. a lot happened for him. But that's the only other news I heard about. It was, it was, it was against Ohio State in Ohio State. Not the, not the easiest way to start out your, your college career. But how about, how about some of these predictions from NFL executives?

What do we got there? Let's get to it. So the Cincinnati Bengals, the prediction here is that they have the strongest two-man offense. And I'm going to tell you why, okay? So the insiders from this athletic poll were super optimistic regarding the offense here. And they have good reason to beat. Let's look at Joey B last season. This is your reigning comeback player of the year, and I'm sure he hates that title. So he led the NFL with 460 completions, just under 5,000 yards, 43 touchdowns. He threw interceptions at a 1.4% rate. That is so low. He just had a great season, and the athletic poll had him ranked at number one, most likely to win MVP. And the final icing on the cake here, everyone said he had the best training camp of his life.

this is the best they have seen Joe Burrow. If we haven't seen Prime Joe Burrow, then what have we been watching? Okay, that is a little bit typical offseason footbally. I'm trying to look something up real quick. I'm just out of curiosity. And look, I am a Burrow believer.

A hundred percent, I think he's an incredible quarterback. Any team would take him. You can win a Super Bowl with him. But I am curious about some of these numbers. Last year, yeah, so it's kind of funny. Last year, he threw for 1,700 yards, almost 1,800 yards when his team was losing.

And when his team was losing, he had a 18 to 2 touchdown to interception ratio and a 120.3 rating when his team was losing. Now, of course, that's good if you have Burrow and you can, you know, stay in any game. But also a little bit fraudulent with the stats. Like when your team is down, you're playing desperate. the other team is playing prevent defenses and you can rack up some kind of bogus stats and they were playing from behind all the time last year because they weren't a good complete football team they didn't run it that well they've certainly played horrendous defense so i get where people would look at these stats and even executives would be like wow he was so good last year but if they're a better overall

football team with a new defensive coordinator i'm not entirely sure they are but if they are then he might not rack up quite this many numbers. Because if you look at when he was leading, he was no quarterback ever puts up bigger numbers when they're leading because you're playing safer, more conservative, you're running more often. So I think that their goal should be to win more and lead more and not have Burrow put up these type of stats.

But I think he's the clear cut. You have, I think the big three of Jackson and Mahomes and Allen. And then there's Joe Burrow, who's right outside the glass door kind of looking at the other three and then there's a big gap and it's everybody else after that the Vikings, they're going to find out

I mean week three Vikings and Cincinnati Bengals and that has the potential to be I think a shootout and maybe a game where we find out a lot about J.J. McCarthy. Yeah, that's going to be a really solid one and those stats a little inflated when they're all looked at out of context

and just written on a page. Could have influenced these insiders decisions I'm not sure. They also were asked to vote on the best non-quarterback offensive player and surprise, it's Jamar Chase by a mile. Far and away, got the most votes. Second up was Barclay,

but not even close in numbers of voting. So Jamar Chase and the stats they gave us led the NFL last season with 127 catches, 1,700 receiving yards, 17 touchdowns. I mean, I think anybody who puts Jamar Chase is the top position player in the NFL. You're being totally fair. I would not put Seekwan Barker.

ahead of Justin Jefferson, even though Barclay had an incredible season, historic season and all that, I think the impact of a downfield wide receiver is greater than a running back, even when he has an unbelievable season like Barclay did. And if we're looking toward this year, Barclay, to me, is regression central. Like, that's just what happens when you have a historic running back season. The Vikings even know this from Adrian Peterson. When he almost broke the rushing record, he the next season had about a yard and a half less per carry even though he's still good that's what we've seen from all of the 2000 yard runners whereas jefferson his statistics are unbelievably consistent i'm not entirely sure that chase is better than just a jefferson

i think that they're a little bit different but i'm surprised that jefferson's name didn't come up more than sayquan barclay yeah they were very confident on both of these bangles votes and that's why i felt this was something you talked about i was like they are they're putting it all out there. These executives say, this is what we think. So that's what they said. Another prediction here, we love doing these. School hasn't even started. Football isn't even here yet. The way too early defensive rookie of the year prediction, drum roll, please, Abdul Carter. Is that shocking to anyone? No, probably not. No, I think I actually do think, and I've started to see a little bit more buzz on this recently, and maybe some people going a little

too far on the Giants, but that defense for the Giants is pretty serious. That D-Line with Dexter Lawrence is, to me, he's a top 10 player in the entire league that's a non-quarterback. And then Abdul Carter, I thought at times when the few times I saw him in preseason looked like he had some serious jolt to him. The only thing I would say about that is oftentimes edge rushers have a more difficult time racking up sacks as rookies. Historically, we've talked about this a lot with Dallas Turner, but historically, it's one of the hardest positions to translate the production right away and usually takes another

year. There's a, you know, there's a couple of players, I think in as far as the defensive race that could be interesting, including like Kenneth Grant from Miami. I don't know how many people are going to be paying attention to Miami this year because I think that there is mid as it gets. Them and Dallas are kind of like in the same spot. But I thought Kenneth Grant was an absolute beast. And I could see him right away making an impact on their interior. But flashy edge rusher, if he gets eight or nine sacks, then probably is a lock for a defensive rookie of the year. Yeah, and something that stood out to me about Abdul Carter is just how versatile he is.

They can put him at three different positions, and he will do exceptionally well at all of them. That's due to his incredible athleticism. He's really quick off the first step off the line. And apparently his teammates have even said this, Brian Burns, who he is in competition with effectively. He said he's a dog. He's a little raw, but his athleticism is just unparalleled, and you can't teach that. And I think that's what everyone looks at when they look at Abdul Carter. they look at his size and they look at the skills that are ones we can't teach you in the

NFL. Are you physically gifted and he is? And that's a freaks position too. That is the best guys in the league are like Miles Garrett and Micah Parsons. They are just completely different types of athletes. I do wonder about what people think of Travis Hunter and his chances for defensive player of the year because it really depends on how much he's going to play corner. So that's something that I am looking for. I kind of have a list running list in my head. of, well, I get to watch football on Sunday, so what am I taking notes on of what I want to talk about on Sunday night, right? And how much does Travis Hunter snap count wise play offense and defense? Because I think that if he just focused on being a corner, he could be an elite

corner, unbelievable playing the football crazy, crazy ball skills. So he could get five or six picks. But if he's only going to play 20 snaps over there, 25 snaps on defense and 30 snaps on offense or is he going to play 80 snaps and it's going to be freaking crazy every single week. Mason Graham was also top five pick. Again, it's hard to get people to pay attention to the Browns. But if he puts up numbers, he would be another one on the list. Hard to find another candidate that jumps out to you right away that you think would be like immediately ready. For whatever reason, Pittsburgh played Derek Harmon in the preseason. He got hurt. Jade Barron from the Brown the Broncos was one of my favorite players in the draft. James Pierce.

for the Falcons. There's a guy the Vikings are going to face. So there's there's a lot of competition here for Abdul Carter right off the bat. When you look at Travis Hunter, do you think that him playing offense and defense is going to be more limiting than it will be if he just focused on one? Yeah, I think if I were him, I would be wanting to just be a corner in the NFL and just be the best corner in the NFL as opposed to being maybe two thirds of the player you could be. But I don't know, like I would have said, if you told me, hey, there's a guy in Major League Baseball, he actually pitches and hits. I'd be like, okay, that sounds wonderful for my softball team, but that does not sound great for Major League Baseball. And then Shohei Otani did it. There's a lot

of things throughout history of sports where we've thought that's you, you can't shoot half court threes all the time. And Steph Curry said, okay, maybe I can though. Right. And there's not many other Steph Curry's in the NBA, but one guy could do it. And maybe the same thing goes. And look, Dion Sanders, when he was in the NFL, there was a season where he played wide receiver all the time, was still an elite corner, was still a great punt returner. They were able to do it. It's not impossible. But as a guy that has some injury history to him, I don't love it for him to try to do a lot of both. If it were me, it would be 55 snaps at corner and 10 snaps at receiver but I don't know what they have in mind it sounds like from their training

camp and they had one of their reporters who kept the snap counts of his reps and it was like 50-50 in training camp so it looks like they're really going to do this okay I mean then this is a huge storyline to watch then because who knows he could be this freak athlete and be the one of one like we're seeing with show hey Otani in baseball I don't know but you got to wonder fingers cross you can stay healthy great storyline for week one for sure and then to wrap it up we talked about the lines a little bit here hear me out here i think they're going to fall short of expectations and so does this athletic poll and overwhelmingly so so i think i said this back in june and i will say it again with my chest they won't be as good as they were last year there were too many changes

and i just don't think that continuity is possible coming into this season let's run through the laundry list of why not. They lost two coordinators, okay, Aaron, Glenn, Ben Johnson, gone, head coaches, happy for them, unfortunate for the Lions. They lost Frank Ragnow at center. That's like your coach on the field, gone. Okay, they released Dan Skipper. A vet.

Is he phenomenal? No, but what does that do from morale in the locker room? Tanks it because everyone loves Dan Skipper, okay? They cut their roster down to 50 people to make room for trades. That shows me that they have low confidence in their guys and that they really need to be making some moves here.

and they stunk it up at the Hall of Fame game. Not with that matter. 34 to 7 is embarrassing in Kent, Ohio. I rest my case. Okay, there's some reaches there. They did bring back Dan Skipper on the practice squad, so he's technically still in the building. I think you're being funny with that, though.

They're top red zone weapon, Dan Skipper. And I have never known the Hall of Fame game to predict the season. So those are funny answers. But I think your first two are dead on, where when you change coordinators, you just don't know what it's going to be like. And Jared Goff and Ben Johnson were tied at the hip. They understood each other so well. Now it's a different voice in the headset.

And this is another thing the Vikings can relate to. 2017, the connection between OC and QB was really good. They changed in 18. It was not the same. And the system didn't work for the receivers as well. The running game wasn't as good. And even though they're going to try to run the same system, it's hard to be a copy of the guy before you.

And that offensive line thing, I think, is a big deal now, especially with Micah Parsons in the division. If he plays week one, I still think you probably will. But if he plays week one, I mean, he could wreak havoc on that team. And Jared Goff's not the same guy when he's under pressure. I think they are the most obvious team that did not get better in the off season. The only argument I'd make for Detroit, because I still have, I still have the order being Detroit. and then Vikings and Packers are kind of on the same plane right now. I think the Vikings are ever so slightly still better.

But the reason is because, like, let's not miss the forest through the trees. They're stacked. They've got a ton of weapons. They have a very, very good defensive line, I think, overall. And they got better in the secondary if Terry and Arnold is better for them, first round pick from last year. They got DJ Reed, who has been kind of an annoyance for the Vikings when they faced him over the years.

Like, let's not go completely crazy. But I can see, I mean, they are the regression candidate, I think, at the top of the list. I'm going to say that they go from 15 to like 11. And the same with the Vikings 14 to like 11. And the Packers kind of stay who they were last year, maybe one win better because you're not facing as easy of a schedule. But I'm not shocked to see the NFL thinking, okay, this team cannot stay as good as they were last year. I think the keyword you said there is the regression is they set the bar almost too high for themselves. it's an impossible standard.

So they're not, anything they do is probably not going to reach that crazy season that they just had. So it's going to look like a drop off because the expectations are set like so high, you know? The Robinson Rundown. Do you have a, do you have a favorite game that you're looking forward to this week? Oh, you know, I still have a lot of people who I know at the NFL. A lot of them are down in Brazil. It's the first game of the season.

You got to look at that one, you know. The Eagles taken on the Cowboys. 820, Thursday, September 4th. I don't want to watch the Cowboys, but okay. I mean, I will, but I don't want to. I think, how about this? Let me give you three or four games. You tell me which one's your favorite.

Chiefs, Chiefs Chargers. Let's see. How about Chiefs Chargers, Bucks, Falcons, 49ers, Seahawks, Lions Packers, or Texans, Rams? I think we all know Bill's Ravens is going to be awesome. but which one of those games stands out to you the most? Okay. So the easy one that I could choose would be the Packers game out of sheer intrigue, okay? Because I want to see it happen just like everyone else does.

Is Parsons going to play? What's he going to look like? What's the dynamic like? However, Chiefs Chargers. Always good. Always good. And for whatever reason in my mind, I never expect the Chargers to be as good as they actually are. They always surprise me every time I turn it on the TV.

I'm like, oh, it's you guys again. So I think we had the Chiefs coming off a terrible Super Bowl run. However, they did go to the Super Bowl, so like it couldn't have been that bad. And you got the Chargers at these teams. I think this is anyone's game. Truthfully, I don't think I can choose a winner here because I don't know what they're going to show up like, but I will be watching. It's always close between those two teams. And I think the Chargers got better after a playoff year.

The Robinson rundown every Tuesday is the plan throughout the season with Maggie Robinson, former NFL producer and now student on her way to a successful broadcast career. Thank you very much, Meg. Hey, and make sure everybody go check out your interview with Walt Anderson, NFL referee, longtime NFL referee. It was great, very insightful. And he said the NFL wasn't rigged. So I guess we'll just have to carry on with the season the same way that we always have.

Thanks for that one. That was a really good interview. And thanks for your time, Maggie. Thank you. See ya. The one thing Maggie still got to remember there is to say football at the end of the interview. She did forget, but a great conversation there with Maggie Robinson. And as far as you guys in the comment section, I see that we're arguing about C.J. Ham,

which means it's time for me to go right, make some dinner. I will say that the Vikings will miss some of that 21 personnel of not having C.J. Ham early in the season. but having Josh Oliver gives them that dynamic still. Ham also plays every single facet of special teams where he will be missed early in the season. And I don't want to say it could be a factor. But, you know, these are special teams leader. And that will matter a lot this year

with the kick returning element of the game increasing. And one other question was about Mani and Murph, who are going to be on Thursday. And then we're going to do Monday night roundtables. Mr. Mayor asked what the history of, of Manny and Merv was, so Manny worked with me at 1,500 ESPN. He was Patrick Royce's producer there when I got hired and then we worked together quite a bit through the years while we were there together and Brian Murphy worked for the Pioneer Press

for a long time as a columnist was out at Eden Prairie all the time. Maybe I think was on the wild beat when they moved everything over to TCO Performance Center. So a little bit of a Zimmer era, he covered that quite a bit. And we got to be friends then. Then we play golf all the time. And Murph is just an amazing writer. So he's also part of the newsletter, Purple Insider. Dot football, if you guys go and check that out.

Yeah, she's got to go back to the film room. That's totally right. That's totally right. Though she's very funny talking about them cutting Dan Skipper, ruining the rail. That was very funny. But, yeah, she'll improve next week. She'll make sure that she says football at the end.

And if you're watching the replay here, make sure you answer that Fandul question of the day down in the comments. That was the over under's 44 and a half. Would you rather see it be a shootout or would you rather see it be a grind fest if the Vikings are going to win? But as far as the first week, Bill's Ravens, clearly, clearly the best game on paper at least, but also Houston and the Rams. Like, how healthy is Matthew Stafford? is he ready to play? Lots of good games, and you get to watch them without the stress of a Vikings game, and then you get all the stress in the world of an island Vikings game on Monday night.

Tomorrow is going to be a big day. KOC, McCarthy, Aaron Jones, all talking, injury update for the first time this season. So we'll have sound from the press conferences. Of course, we'll be there as always. And we will have planned for Kailen Kailer of you. SPN to be on, and also Mike Shope with our Fandul Fantasy preview for week one, which is basically just us kind of trying to figure out how stuff is going to go for the season. And Mike is always really good at what he does.

So it'll be a really fun show tomorrow night and the rest of the week jam-packed with friends of the show, guests, journalists, sound from TCO Performance Center. It's football season, everybody. Let's go. And we'll see you then. Football.